THE JABBORWOCKY
/Dee Finney's blog
start date July 20, 2011
Today's date January 10, 2012
page 105
TOPIC: ODIN - THE JABBORWOCKY - LORD OF THE FLIES -
NOTE: I've written about the Jabborwocky before: http://www.greatdreams.com/death/Jabberwocky.htm
The earlier dream was followed by a killing spree that crossed our entire nation.
This one is going to be worse than that.
BEFORE I HAD THE DREAM, I WAS LUCID, watching dead flies being lined up on a screen in a neatly aligned pattern. The following dream happened next:
1=10=12 - DREAM - i was living in New Berlin, WI with my husband and children. There was waves and waves of wind and black clouds going by and I was trying to laundry. I had just washed a set of blue sheets and it was too owindy to hang them out to dry (thiis was in the days before dryers existed) My husband insisted that I had to hang them up and he got so adamant about it, he left my little daughter about one year old sitting on the sidewalk and he grabbed the sheets and took them to the attic of our house to hang them up.
I ran outside to get my daughter off the sidewalk because I could see another black cloud coming and took her into the house. Then I went to the attic to find the blue sheets, which my husband had hung from a rope over the roof access door.
I looked at the blue sheets which looked like flags flying, and on the one I looked at first, there was a grass snake clinging to it, many flies trying to stay out of the wind. I looked down to the ground then and saw hundreds if nt thousands of sparrows laying on the ground dead.
I woke up then when Joe bummped my head wiith his arm, and I yelled at him, "Never hit me in the head when we are at war.."
NOTE: When we went up to our attic a couple days ago, there was a dead sparrow laying on the floor underneath a trap door that leads to a dead space above the finished attic room.
NOTE: a snake standing on its tail belongs to the God Odin
Odin is the Norse God - Odin - Also Odhinn, Woden, Wodan, and Woutan. He is the supreme god and oldest of all in Norse mythology, god of wisdom, poetry, magic, and war
Flies belong to the Jabborwocky from Alice in Wonderland. The Lord of the Flies:
LORD OF OTHE FLIES IS ALSO A NOVEL. DETAILS on page: http://www.greatdreams.com/blog-2012/dee-blog105.html
************
1-10-12 - DREAM - I was at my new job. For some reason I want to call him Arthur. I still don't have a clear picture of who he reminds me of.
The first job he gave me was a piece of cloth that the same size as a legal size of paper. The one he gave me was old and tattered and he wanted me to make him one just like it. It had emergency phone numbers at a bottom. Attached was a foot long ruler on one side and some other pockets to put things in.
I went to the draftng department to see if they had any cloth paper like it and they didn't, but I managed to find something similar and started making up a similar thing to what he gave me.
I had it almost complete when the boss came back from a business trip he had made and he was in a really good mood.
I found out then what he wanted this cloth for and his intention was to attach it to the front of his desk with a bag of potato ships at the top.
I started looking for things to put in the pockets then because he intended this cloth to be like his ditty bag. I found a sharp seam ripper, an ear cleaniner, a little sharp scissor and some nails to attach this thing to his deak. On the side owld go a brand new yellow foot long ruler.
While I was doing that I started hear Austrain dance music and when he apparear at the door, I knew he wanted to dance with me.
THIS IS GERMAN, BUT SIMILAR: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhmLkPR0PKg&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF739mqqG4I&NR=1&feature=endscreen
dID i MENTION THAT MY HUSBAND FROM THE PREVIOUS DREAM IS AUSTRIAN?
****************
In Germanic mythologies (see Norse mythology), giants (Jotuns) are often opposed to the gods. In particular, the Wodin/Odin-derived mythologies of Northern Europe feature frost giants, who are eternally opposed to the Aesir. The Aesir themselves emerged from the race of giants, and in the eventual, apocalyptic battle of Ragnarok the frost giants will storm Asgard, home of the gods, and defeat the gods in war, bringing about the end of the world. In the mature form of this mythology recorded in the Edda poetry and prose, giants inter-marry with the gods and are the origin of most of the monsters in Nordic mythology (e.g., the Fenris Wolf), so relations between the Aesir and the giants are sometimes cordial and sometimes adversarial.
Tales of combat with giants were a common feature in the folklore of Wales and Ireland. From here, giants got into Breton and Arthurian romances, and from this source they spread into the heroic tales of Torquato Tasso, Ludovico Ariosto, and their follower Edmund Spenser. The giant Despair appears in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. Norse and Anglo-Saxon mythology are also rich in tales of giants, which seem there to be a separate race akin to the gods, and strove often with Thor. Ogres and trolls are giant-like humanoid creatures that occur in various sorts of European folklore.
In the late 1800’s, early 1900’s, there were a variety of secret /occult societies in Germany, the main ones being, The Bavarian Illuminati, The Freemasons, The Rosicrucians, The Thule Society and The Vril Society. Each of these five societies, although based in secrecy and mysticism, had its role and function. Of these five, two were especially noted for their occult connections, The Vril Society and its purely German offshoot The Thule Society. The chief architect of the Thule Society was Baron Rudolph von Sebottendorff, sometimes referred to as Rudolf Glauer. Sebottendorff / Glauer possessed a wide knowledge of Islamic Mysticism in all its aspects, encompassing the Dervish sects and particularly the cult of Sufism which differs markedly from mainstream Islamic teaching.
THULE
The name, Thule, refers to the capital of the legendary polar country Hyperborea. Also referred to as ‘Ultima Thule’, it was supposedly the gateway to another world. Thule was therefore recognized as a place where humans could, by whatever means, ‘leave the earth’, it also reputedly stood at the portal of the ‘Hollow Earth’. Interestingly, the major players in the 20th century, the USA and the Russian Federation have ELF - extras low frequency - transmitters sited in this area. These transmitters are supposedly used to communicate with submerged submarines, but worryingly, they broadcast these messages at brain-wave frequencies, around 18 to 20Hz.
Traditionally, the Hyperboreans were in contact with extraterrestrials or ‘alien cultures’, in some versions of this, there was interbreeding. In common with the legendary inhabitants of Atlantis, they engaged in war with neighboring civilizations. This escalated into the use of atomic weapons, resulting in a pyrrhic victory for the Hyperboreans, who, as well as defeating their enemies, virtually destroyed themselves in the process. In common with radiation damage in recent times, the surviving Hyperboreans were soon faced with the prospect of mutated and otherwise damaged offspring. Showing remarkable resolve, those who had not sustained any apparent genetic damage, banded together and effectively removed themselves from the gene pool, a variety of self imposed quarantine. Any ‘damaged’ offspring from this group, were neutered. This early example of eugenics was practiced until they were sure that any defective genes had been bred out. The other mutated group eventually died out, whether they were ‘assisted’ in this, is open to debate. This may seem like, and indeed is, a harsh, clinical line to adopt, but being faced with the extinction of their entire race, they had little other option.
The descendants of this seminal ‘Mother race’ were the Celts who, like the ripples on a pond, spread out, colonizing various northern areas of the planet. Scots, Irish, Basques, Spanish, Scandinavians, Icelanders and the Portuguese, all these peoples are of Celtic origin. These disparate nationalities have one common genetic trait, a large percentage of RH-negative blood types, which, according to the beliefs of the Thule society was a characteristic of the Hyperboreans and their extraterrestrial associates. In recent times, the majority of alien abductees are reportedly from RH negative blood groups, is this a possible indication that UFO cultures are tracking their cross-bred progeny? Other races and peoples who posses a positive blood type were considered to be racially impure, as positive blood is thought to be contaminated by contact with the ape evolved strand of human DNA.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"In Germany at the turn of the century and particularly after WW I many secret societies developed. One of these groups was the Vril Society.
"In 1917 four people met in a cafe in Vienna. There was one woman and three men. The woman was a 'spiritual medium'. They met under a veil of mystery and secrecy. "They discussed secret revelations, the coming of the new age, the sphere of destiny, the magical violet black stone, and making contact with ancient peoples and distant worlds.
"Their source of power was the Black Sun, an infinite beam of light which though invisible to the human eye is real and there.
"The Vril emblem was the 'Black Sun' - a secret philosophy thousand of years old provided the foundation on which the occult practitioners of the Third Reich would later build. The Black Sun symbol can be found in many Babylonian and Assyrian places of worship. They depicted the Black Sun - the godhead's inner light in the form of a cross. This was not much different from the German's Knight's Cross.
"With supposed channeled information from ET's, the Vril society built the Vril Machine. It was saucer shaped. It was supposedly an interdimensional or time travel machine. The first piloted flight was in 1934.
The Vril Force and the Black Sun
In Lytton's The Coming Race, the subterranean people use the Vril Force to operate and govern the world (a few children armed with vril-powered rods are said capable of exterminating a race of over 22 million threatening barbarians). Served by robots and able to fly on vril-powered wings, the vegetarian Vril-ya are — by their own reckoning — racially and culturally superior to everyone else on Earth, above or below the ground. At one point the narrator concludes (from linguistic evidence) that the Vril-ya are "descended from the same ancestors as the great Aryan family, from which in varied streams has flowed the dominant civilization of the world."
The Vril Force or Vril Energy was said to be derived from the Black Sun, a big ball of "Prima Materia" which supposedly exists in the center of the Earth, giving light to the Vril-ya and putting out radiation in the form of Vril. The Vril Society believed that Aryans were the actual biological ancestors of the Black Sun.
This force was known to the ancients under many names, and it has been called Chi, Ojas, Vril, Astral Light, Odin Forces and Orgone. In a discussion of the 28th degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry—called Knight of the Sun or Prince Adept— Albert Pike said, "There is in nature one most potent force, by means whereof a single man, who could possess himself of it, and should know how to direct it, could revolutionize and change the face of the world."
This is the force that the Nazis and their inner occult circle were so desperately trying to unleash upon the world, for which the Vril Society had apparently groomed Hitler. A manifestation of the "Great Work" promulgated by the Adepts of secret societies throughout the ages. The Vril Society latched on to a very old archetype already in the minds of alchemists and magicians, which was only re-interpreted, by Lytton, in light of that age of occult revival and scientific progress.
The idea of mutation and transformation into a higher form of a "god-man" was envisioned, through the Vril-ya, in Buller-Lytton's The Coming Race. Lytton, himself, was an initiate of the Rosicrucians and was well versed in the arcane-esoteric philosophies (and of course the greatest advances in the sciences of his day). "Through his romantic works of fiction he expressed the conviction that there are beings endowed with superhuman powers. These beings will supplant us and bring about a formidable mutation in the elect of the human race." (J. Bergier)
This is where the philosophy turns dangerous. The moment we speak of an elect and "illumined" class which is above the general populace, you inevitably encounter racism and classcism — with fascism in due course. "We must beware of this notion of a mutation," Bergier warns. "It crops up again with Hitler, and is not extinct today."
Bergier and Pauwels were writing in 1960, but today this philosophy is, sadly, once again in the forefront of popular culture. The New World Order, so vehemently opposed, is under the direct influence and guidance of the New Age Movement. A hodgepodge of occult doctrines and dangerous socialism, which hides under a cover of "spiritual enlightenment." Theosophy is considered the main foundation, and its founder, Mme. Blavatsky, was a great admirer of Lytton's. In The Occult Conspiracy, the excellent researcher, Michael Howard, writes about the compatibility of the two philosophies:
Blavatsky had read Bulwer Lytton's novels and was very impressed by their occult content, especially Zanoni and the Last Days of Pompeii. The latter was published in 1834 and dealt with the time between early Christianity and the Mysteries of Isis in Italy in the first century A.D.
Blavatsky's esotericism was virulently anti-Christian...The racial ideas of Madame Blavatsky, concerning root races and the emergence of a spiritually-developed type of human being in the Aquarian Age, were avidly accepted by the nineteenth-century German nationalists who mixed Theosophical occultism with anti-Semitism and the doctrine of the racial supremacy of the Aryan or Indo-European peoples.
SEE: http://www.conspiracyarchive.com/NWO/Vril_Society.htm
FLY - an irritation in a life situation. To swat the flies denotes needing to kill or stop the negative irritations. If one concentrates too hard on the negative irritations, one misses the important or beautiful aspects of life. Beezelbub is the Lord of the Flies is associated with swarming flies. Invincible swarms of flies were seen as embodiments of demonic powers. Swarms of flies of harbingers of disaster, Isaiah 7:18. Flies are predominantly symbols of satanic beings.
Flies have often been used in mythology and literature to represent agents of death and decay
DEAD SPARROWS: Sparrows traditionally represent wild freedom - a dead sparrow may be symbolic of the end of freedom
in the spirit world, the sparrows are known to take the spirit of a human to
the other side - like death.
DARK BLUE SHEET: IN EGYPTIAN COLOR SYMBOLISM WE FIND: The gods were
said to have hair made of lapis lazuli, a blue stone. Note in the image above of
the Opening of the Mouth ceremony that the mummy and Anubis both have blue hair.
Since the snake was stnaindg on nits tail on a dark blue sheet the God
Odin is very fitting in this symbolism.
THE NEW BOSS - I got hired by this boss in a dream yesterday. I thought he was sleeping all day, but he was busy writing and he wrote everything in bright red (communist?) and then I had to work all night to transcribe it.
In today's dream, he handed me a dull green legal size piece of cloth on which he hd an old ruler, and he wanted me to replace the cloth and attach a new ruler to it and fill the pockets on the cloth like a ditty bag.
since the clothe was dull green, and I recall a northeast country that jhust changed rulers. I'm going to assume this is Kim Yung Il, and Kim Yung Un. The color matches their uniforms as well.
This new boss attached this dull green cloth to his desk with the ruler attached, and in the pockets I placed a seam ripper (very dangerous) an ear scoop (probably a good thhiing to clean out his ears) and a small scissors which sewers use to clip loose threads (also can be a dangerous weapon in th eral world.
I keep wanting to call him Arthur -
A market condition in which the prices of securities are falling, and widespread pessimism causes the negative sentiment to be self-sustaining. As investors anticipate losses in a bear market and selling continues, pessimism only grows. Although figures can vary, for many, a downturn of 20\% or more in multiple broad market indexes, such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) or Standard & Poor's 500 Index (S&P 500), over at least a two-month period, is considered an entry into a bear market.
HERE IS THE PAGE I DID ABOUT KIM YONG'S DEATH AND THE NEW RULER KIM YONG UNNorth Korea (
listen), officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
(DPRK;
Chosŏn'gŭl: 조선민주주의인민공화국,
Hanja:
朝鮮民主主義人民共和國), is a country in
East Asia,
occupying the northern half of the
Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is
Pyongyang.
The
Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the
buffer zone between North Korea and
South
Korea. The
Amnok,
or Yalu, and the
Tumen
rivers form the border between North Korea and
China. A
section of the Tumen River in the far northeast is the border with
Russia.
The peninsula was governed by the Korean Empire until it was annexed by Japan after the Russo-Japanese War of 1905. It was divided into Soviet- and American-occupied zones in 1945, after the end of World War II. North Korea refused to participate in a United Nations–supervised election held in the south in 1948, which led to the creation of separate Korean governments for the two occupation zones. North and South Korea each claimed sovereignty over the whole Korean Peninsula, which led to the Korean War of 1950. The Armistice Agreement of 1953 ended the fighting; but the two countries are officially still at war against each other, for a peace treaty was never signed.[10] Both states were accepted into the United Nations in 1991.[11]
North Korea is a single-party state under a united front led by the Korean Workers' Party (KWP).[12][13][14][15] The country's government follows the Juche ideology of self-reliance, developed by the country's President, Kim Il-sung. After his death, Kim Il-sung was declared the country's Eternal President. Juche became the official state ideology when the country adopted a new constitution in 1972,[16] though Kim Il-sung had been using it to form policy since at least as early as 1955.[17] After the collapse of the Soviet Union and a series of natural disasters, a famine occurred, causing the death of 900,000 to 2 million people.[18] Facing these circumstances, leader Kim Jong-Il adopted Songun, or a "military-first" policy in order to strengthen the country and its government.[19]
Many outside organizations describe North Korea as a totalitarian Stalinist dictatorship[13][14][20][21][22] with an elaborate cult of personality around the Kim family and one of the lowest-ranking human rights records of any country.[23] The North Korean government denies this association.[24] North Korea is the world's most militarized nation,[25][26] with a total of 9,495,000 active, reserve, and paramilitary personnel. It is a nuclear-weapons state and has an active space program.[27]
NORTH KOREAN WAR:
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The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953[6][a]) was a war between Republic of Korea (supported by the United Nations) and Democratic People's Republic of Korea (supported by the People's Republic of China, with military and material aid from the Soviet Union). The war was a result of the physical division of Korea by an agreement of the victorious Allies at the conclusion of the Pacific War at the end of World War II. The Korean peninsula was ruled by Japan from 1910 until the end of World War II. Following the surrender of Japan in 1945, American administrators divided the peninsula along the 38th Parallel, with United States troops occupying the southern part and Soviet troops occupying the northern part.[8]
The failure to hold free elections throughout the Korean Peninsula in 1948 deepened the division between the two sides, and the North established a Communist government while the South established a Capitalist one. The 38th Parallel increasingly became a political border between the two Koreas. Although reunification negotiations continued in the months preceding the war, tension intensified. Cross-border skirmishes and raids at the 38th Parallel persisted. The situation escalated into open warfare when North Korean forces invaded South Korea on 25 June 1950.[9] It was the first significant armed conflict of the Cold War.[10]
The United Nations, particularly the United States, came to the aid of South Korea in repelling the invasion, but within two months the defenders were pushed back to the Pusan perimeter, a small area in the south of the country, before the North Koreans were stopped. A rapid UN counter-offensive then drove the North Koreans past the 38th Parallel and almost to the Yalu River, and the People's Republic of China (PRC) entered the war on the side of the North.[9] The Chinese launched a counter-offensive that pushed the United Nations forces back across the 38th Parallel. The Soviet Union materially aided the North Korean and Chinese armies. The active stage of the war ended on 27 July 1953, when the armistice agreement was signed. The agreement restored the border between the Koreas near the 38th Parallel and created the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), a 2.5-mile (4.0 km) wide buffer zone between the two Koreas. Minor outbreaks of fighting continue to the present day.
With both North and South Korea sponsored by external powers, the Korean War was a proxy war. From a military science perspective, it combined strategies and tactics of World War I and World War II: it began with a mobile campaign of swift infantry attacks followed by air bombing raids, but became a static trench war by July 1951.
In the United States, the war was initially described by President Harry S. Truman as a "police action" as it was conducted under the auspices of the United Nations.[11] Colloquially, it has been referred to in the United States as The Forgotten War or The Unknown War because the issues concerned were much less clear than in previous and subsequent conflicts, such as World War II and the Vietnam War.[12][13]
In South Korea the war is usually referred to as "625" or the 6–2–5 Upheaval (yug-i-o dongnan), reflecting the date of its commencement on 25 June.[14] In North Korea the war is officially referred to as the Fatherland Liberation War (Choguk haebang chǒnjaeng). Alternatively, it is called the Chosǒn chǒnjaeng ("Chosǒn war", Chosǒn being what North Koreans call Korea).[15] In the People's Republic of China the war is called the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea (traditional Chinese: 抗美援朝戰爭; simplified Chinese: 抗美援朝战争; pinyin: Kàngměiyuáncháo zhànzhēng).[16][17] The "Korean War" (朝鮮戰爭/朝鲜战争; pinyin: Cháoxiǎn zhànzhēng) is more commonly used today. Cháoxiǎn is the Chinese pronunciation of the Korean name "Chosǒn".
Upon defeating the Qing Dynasty in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–96), the Empire of Japan occupied the Korean Empire – a peninsula strategic to its sphere of influence.[18] A decade later, defeating Imperial Russia in the Russo-Japanese War (1904–05), Japan made Korea its protectorate with the Eulsa Treaty in 1905, then annexed it with the Japan–Korea Annexation Treaty in 1910.[19]
Korean nationalists and the intelligentsia fled the country, and some founded the Provisional Korean Government in 1919, which was headed by Syngman Rhee in Shanghai. This government-in-exile was recognized by few countries. From 1919 to 1925 and beyond, Korean communists led and were the primary agents of internal and external warfare against the Japanese.[20][21]
Korea under Japanese rule was considered to be part of the Empire of Japan as an industrialized colony along with Taiwan, and both were part of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. In 1937, the colonial Governor-General, General Jirō Minami, commanded the attempted cultural assimilation of Korea's 23.5 million people by banning the use and study of Korean language, literature, and culture, to be replaced with that of mandatory use and study of their Japanese counterparts. Starting in 1939, the populace was required to use Japanese names under the Sōshi-kaimei policy. In 1938, the Colonial Government established labor conscription.[citation needed]
In China, the National Revolutionary Army and the Communist People's Liberation Army helped organize refugee Korean patriots and independence fighters against the Japanese military, which had also occupied parts of China. The Nationalist-backed Koreans, led by Yi Pom-Sok, fought in the Burma Campaign (December 1941 – August 1945). The Communists, led by Kim Il-sung, fought the Japanese in Korea and Manchuria.[citation needed]
During World War II, the Japanese used Korea's food, livestock, and metals for their war effort. Japanese forces in Korea increased from 46,000 soldiers in 1941 to 300,000 in 1945. Japanese Korea conscripted 2.6 million forced laborers controlled with a collaborationist Korean police force; some 723,000 people were sent to work in the overseas empire and in metropolitan Japan. By 1942, Korean men were being conscripted into the Imperial Japanese Army. By January 1945, Koreans comprised 32% of Japan's labor force. In August 1945, when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, around 25% of those killed were Koreans.[21] At the end of the war, other world powers did not recognize Japanese rule in Korea and Taiwan.
Meanwhile, at the Cairo Conference (November 1943), Nationalist China, the United Kingdom, and the United States decided "in due course Korea shall become free and independent".[22] Later, the Yalta Conference (February 1945) granted to the Soviet Union European "buffer zones"—satellite states accountable to Moscow—as well as an expected Soviet pre-eminence in China and Manchuria, in return for joining the Allied Pacific War effort against Japan.[23]
Toward the end of World War II, as per a US-Soviet agreement, the USSR declared war against Japan on 9 August 1945.[21][24] By 10 August, the Red Army occupied the northern part of the Korean peninsula as agreed, and on 26 August halted at the 38th parallel for three weeks to await the arrival of US forces in the south.[25]
On 10 August 1945, with the 15 August Japanese surrender near, the Americans doubted whether the Soviets would honor their part of the Joint Commission, the US-sponsored Korean occupation agreement. A month earlier, Colonel Dean Rusk and Colonel Charles H. Bonesteel III divided the Korean peninsula at the 38th parallel after hurriedly deciding that the US Korean Zone of Occupation had to have a minimum of two ports.[26][27][28][29]
Explaining why the occupation zone demarcation was positioned at the 38th parallel, Rusk observed, "even though it was further north than could be realistically reached by US forces, in the event of Soviet disagreement ... we felt it important to include the capital of Korea in the area of responsibility of American troops", especially when "faced with the scarcity of US forces immediately available, and time and space factors, which would make it difficult to reach very far north, before Soviet troops could enter the area."[23] The Soviets agreed to the US occupation zone demarcation to improve their negotiating position regarding the occupation zones in Eastern Europe, and because each would accept Japanese surrender where they stood.[30]
After the end of Second Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese Civil War resumed between the Chinese Communists and the Chinese Nationalists. While the Communists were struggling for supremacy in Manchuria, they were supported by the North Korean government with materiel and manpower.[31] According to Chinese sources, the North Koreans donated 2,000 railway cars worth of material while thousands of Korean "volunteers" served in the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) during the war.[32] North Korea also provided the Chinese Communists in Manchuria with a safe refuge for non-combatants and communications with the rest of China.[31]
The North Korean contributions to the Chinese Communist victory were not forgotten after the creation of the People's Republic of China in 1949. As a token of gratitude, between 50,000 to 70,000 Korean veterans that served in the PLA were sent back along with their weapons, and they would later play a significant role in the initial invasion of South Korea.[31] China promised to support the North Koreans in the event of a war against South Korea.[33] The Chinese support created a deep division between the Korean Communists, and Kim Il-Sung's authority within the Communist party was challenged by the Chinese faction led by Pak Il-yu, who was later purged by Kim.[34]
After the formation of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the Chinese government named the Western nations, led by the United States, as the biggest threat to its national security.[35] Basing this judgment on China's century of humiliation beginning in the early 19th century,[36] American support for the Nationalists during the Chinese Civil War,[37] and the ideological struggles between revolutionaries and reactionaries,[38] the Chinese leadership believed that China would become a critical battleground in the United States' crusade against Communism.[39] As a countermeasure and to elevate China's standing among the worldwide Communist movements, the Chinese leadership adopted a foreign policy that actively promoted Communist revolutions throughout territories on China's periphery.[40]
At the Potsdam Conference (July–August 1945), the Allies unilaterally decided to divide Korea—without consulting the Koreans—in contradiction of the Cairo Conference.[41][42][43][44]
On 8 September 1945, Lt. Gen. John R. Hodge of the United States arrived in Incheon to accept the Japanese surrender south of the 38th parallel.[27] Appointed as military governor, General Hodge directly controlled South Korea via the United States Army Military Government in Korea (USAMGIK 1945–48).[45] He established control by restoring to power the key Japanese colonial administrators and their Korean police collaborators.[10] The USAMGIK refused to recognise the provisional government of the short-lived People's Republic of Korea (PRK) because he suspected it was communist. These policies, voiding popular Korean sovereignty, provoked civil insurrections and guerrilla warfare.[19] On 3 September 1945, Lieutenant General Yoshio Kozuki, Commander, Japanese Seventeenth Area Army, contacted Hodge, telling him that the Soviets were south of the 38th parallel at Kaesong. Hodge trusted the accuracy of the Japanese Army report[27]
In December 1945, Korea was administered by a US–USSR Joint Commission, as agreed at the Moscow Conference (1945). The Koreans were excluded from the talks. The commission decided the country would become independent after a five-year trusteeship action facilitated by each régime sharing its sponsor's ideology.[46][47] The Korean populace revolted; in the south, some protested, and some rose in arms;[19] to contain them, the USAMGIK banned strikes on 8 December 1945 and outlawed the PRK Revolutionary Government and the PRK People's Committees on 12 December 1945.
On 23 September 1946 an 8,000-strong railroad worker strike began in Pusan. Civil disorder spread throughout the country in what became known as the Autumn uprising. On 1 October 1946, Korean police killed three students in the Daegu Uprising; protesters counter-attacked, killing 38 policemen. On 3 October, some 10,000 people attacked the Yeongcheon police station, killing three policemen and injuring some 40 more; elsewhere, some 20 landlords and pro-Japanese South Korean officials were killed.[48] The USAMGIK declared martial law.
The right-wing Representative Democratic Council, led by nationalist Syngman Rhee, opposed the Soviet–American trusteeship of Korea, arguing that after 35 years (1910–45) of Japanese colonial rule most Koreans opposed another foreign occupation. The USAMGIK decided to forego the five year trusteeship agreed upon in Moscow, given the 31 March 1948 United Nations election deadline to achieve an anti-communist civil government in the US Korean Zone of Occupation.
On 3 April what began as a demonstration commemorating Korean resistance to Japanese rule ended with the Jeju massacre of as many as 60,000 citizens by South Korean soldiers.[49]
On 10 May, South Korea convoked their first national general elections that the Soviets first opposed, then boycotted, insisting that the US honor the trusteeship agreed to at the Moscow Conference.[50][51]
North Korea held parliamentary elections three months later on 25 August 1948.[52]
The resultant anti-communist South Korean government promulgated a national political constitution on 17 July 1948, elected a president, the American-educated strongman Syngman Rhee on 20 July 1948. The elections were marred by terrorism and sabotage resulting in 600 deaths.[53] The Republic of Korea (South Korea) was established on 15 August 1948. In the Russian Korean Zone of Occupation, the USSR established a Communist North Korean government[50] led by Kim Il-sung.[54] President Rhee's régime expelled communists and leftists from southern national politics. Disenfranchised, they headed for the hills, to prepare for guerrilla war against the US-sponsored ROK Government.[54]
As nationalists, both Syngman Rhee and Kim Il-Sung were intent upon reunifying Korea under their own political system.[55] With Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong fighting over the control of the Korean Peninsula,[56] the North Koreans gained support from both the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. They escalated the continual border skirmishes and raids and then prepared to invade. South Korea, with limited matériel, could not match them.[55] During this era, at the beginning of the Cold War, the US government assumed that all communists, regardless of nationality, were controlled or directly influenced by Moscow; thus the US portrayed the civil war in Korea as a Soviet hegemonic maneuver.[57]
In October 1948, South Korean left-wing soldiers rebelled against the government's harsh clampdown in April on Jeju island in the Yeosu-Suncheon Rebellion.[58]
The Soviet Union withdrew as agreed from Korea in 1948. U.S. troops withdrew from Korea in 1949, leaving the South Korean army relatively ill-equipped. On 24 December 1949, South Korean forces killed 86 to 88 people in the Mungyeong massacre and blamed the crime on communist marauding bands.[59][60]
In April 1950 Kim Il-sung travelled to Moscow and secured Stalin's support for a policy to unify Korea under his authority. Although agreeing with the invasion of South Korea in principle, Stalin refused to become directly involved in Kim's plans, and advised Kim to enlist Chinese support instead. In May 1950 Kim visited Beijing, and succeeded in gaining Mao's endorsement. At the time, Mao's support for Kim was largely political (he was contemplating the invasions of Taiwan and Tibet), and was unaware of Kim's precise intentions or the timing of Kim's attack. When the Korean war broke out, the Chinese were in the process of demobilizing half of the PLA's 5.6 million soldiers.[61]
After the US missions had left the People's Republic of China, CIA China station officer Douglas Mackiernan volunteered to remain and conduct spy operations. Afterward, he and a team of indigenous personnel then escaped China in a months-long horse trek across the Himalaya mountains; he was killed within miles of Lhasa. His team delivered the intelligence to headquarters that invasion was imminent. Thirteen days later on 25 June 1950, the North Korean People's Army (KPA) crossed the 38th parallel border and invaded South Korea. Mackiernan was posthumously awarded the CIA Intelligence Star for valor.[62]
Under the guise of counter-attacking a South Korean provocation raid, the KPA crossed the 38th parallel behind artillery fire at dawn on Sunday 25 June 1950.[63] The KPA said that Republic of Korea Army (ROK Army) troops, under command of the régime of the "bandit traitor Syngman Rhee", had crossed the border first, and that they would arrest and execute Rhee.[27] Both Korean armies had continually harassed each other with skirmishes and each continually staged raids across the 38th parallel border.
On 27 June, Rhee evacuated from Seoul with government officials. Rhee ordered the Bodo League massacre, which started on 28 June.[64][65][66]
On 28 June, South Korea bombed the bridge across the Han River to stop the North Korean army.[67]
Early on in the fighting, South Korea put its forces under the authority of the United Nations Command (Korea).[68]
The Truman Administration was caught at a crossroads. Before the invasion, Korea was not included in the strategic Asian Defense Perimeter outlined by Secretary of State Acheson.[69] Military strategists were more concerned with the security of Europe against the Soviet Union than East Asia. At the same time, the Administration was worried that a war in Korea could quickly widen into another world war should the Chinese or Soviets decide to get involved as well.
One facet of the changing attitude toward Korea and whether to get involved was Japan. Especially after the fall of China to the Communists, "...Japan itself increasingly appeared as the major East Asian prize to be protected". US East Asian experts saw Japan as the critical counterweight to the Soviet Union and China in the region. While there was no United States policy that dealt with South Korea directly as a national interest, its proximity to Japan pushed South Korea to the fore. "The recognition that the security of Japan required a non-hostile Korea led directly to President Truman's decision to intervene... The essential point... is that the American response to the North Korean attack stemmed from considerations of US policy toward Japan."[70] The United States wanted to shore up Japan to make it a viable counterweight against the Soviet Union and China, and Korea was seen as integral to that end.
The other important part of committing to intervention lay in speculation about Soviet action in the event that the United States intervene. The Truman administration was fretful that a war in Korea was a diversionary assault that would escalate to a general war in Europe once the US committed in Korea. At the same time, "[t]here was no suggestion from anyone that the United Nations or the United States could back away from [the conflict]".[71] In Truman's mind, this aggression, if left unchecked, would start a chain reaction that would destroy the United Nations and give the go ahead to further Communist aggression elsewhere. Korea was where a stand had to be made, the difficult part was how. The UN Security council approved the use of force to help the South Koreans and the US immediately began using air and naval forces in the area to that end. The Administration still refrained from committing on the ground because some advisors believed the North Koreans could be stopped by air and naval power alone.[72] Also, it was still uncertain if this was a clever ploy by the Soviet Union to catch the US unawares or just a test of US resolve. The decision to commit ground troops and to intervene eventually became viable when a communiqué was received on 27 June from the Soviet Union that alluded it would not move against US forces in Korea. "This opened the way for the sending of American ground forces, for it now seemed less likely that a general war—with Korea as a preliminary diversion—was imminent".[73] With the Soviet Union's tacit agreement that this would not cause an escalation, the United States now could intervene with confidence that other commitments would not be jeopardized.
On 25 June 1950, the United Nations Security Council unanimously condemned the North Korean invasion of the Republic of Korea, with United Nations Security Council Resolution 82. The USSR, a veto-wielding power, had boycotted the Council meetings since January 1950, protesting that the Republic of China (Taiwan), not the People's Republic of China, held a permanent seat in the UN Security Council.[74] After debating the matter, the Security Council, on 27 June 1950, published Resolution 83 recommending member states provide military assistance to the Republic of Korea. On 27 June President Truman ordered US air and sea forces to help the South Korean régime. On 4 July the Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister accused the US of starting armed intervention on behalf of South Korea.[75]
The USSR challenged the legitimacy of the war for several reasons. The ROK Army intelligence upon which Resolution 83 was based came from US Intelligence; North Korea was not invited as a sitting temporary member of the UN, which violated UN Charter Article 32; and the Korean conflict was beyond UN Charter scope, because the initial north–south border fighting was classed as a civil war. The Soviet representative boycotted the UN to prevent Security Council action, and to challenge the legitimacy of the UN action; legal scholars posited that deciding upon an action of this type required the unanimous vote of the five permanent members.[76][77]
The North Korean Army launched the "Fatherland Liberation War" with a comprehensive air–land invasion using 231,000 soldiers, who captured scheduled objectives and territory, among them Kaesong, Chuncheon, Uijeongbu, and Ongjin. Their forces included 274 T-34-85 tanks, some 150 Yak fighters, 110 attack bombers, 200 artillery pieces, 78 Yak trainers, and 35 reconnaissance aircraft.[27] In addition to the invasion force, the North Korean KPA had 114 fighters, 78 bombers, 105 T-34-85 tanks, and some 30,000 soldiers stationed in reserve in North Korea.[27] Although each navy consisted of only several small warships, the North Korean and South Korean navies fought in the war as sea-borne artillery for their in-country armies.
In contrast, the ROK Army defenders were vastly unprepared, and the political establishment in the south, while well aware of the threat to the north, were unable to convince American administrators of the reality of the threat. In South to the Naktong, North to the Yalu (1961), R.E. Appleman reports the ROK forces' low combat readiness as of 25 June 1950. The ROK Army had 98,000 soldiers (65,000 combat, 33,000 support), no tanks (they had been requested from the US military, but requests were denied), and a 22–piece air force comprising 12 liaison-type and 10 AT6 advanced-trainer airplanes. There were no large foreign military garrisons in Korea at invasion time, but there were large US garrisons and air forces in Japan.[27]
Within days of the invasion, masses of ROK Army soldiers—of dubious loyalty to the Syngman Rhee régime—were either retreating southwards or were defecting en masse to the northern side, the KPA.[20]
Despite the rapid post–Second World War Allied demobilizations, there were substantial US forces occupying Japan; under General Douglas MacArthur's command, they could be made ready to fight the North Koreans.[78] Only the British Commonwealth had comparable forces in the area.
On Saturday, 24 June 1950, US Secretary of State Dean Acheson informed President Truman by telephone, "Mr. President, I have very serious news. The North Koreans have invaded South Korea."[79][80] Truman and Acheson discussed a US invasion response with defense department principals, who agreed that the United States was obligated to repel military aggression, paralleling it with Adolf Hitler's 1930s aggressions, and said that the mistake of appeasement must not be repeated.[81] In his autobiography, President Truman acknowledged that fighting the invasion was essential to the American goal of the global containment of communism as outlined in the National Security Council Report 68 (NSC-68) (declassified in 1975):
Communism was acting in Korea, just as Hitler, Mussolini and the Japanese had ten, fifteen, and twenty years earlier. I felt certain that if South Korea was allowed to fall Communist leaders would be emboldened to override nations closer to our own shores. If the Communists were permitted to force their way into the Republic of Korea without opposition from the free world, no small nation would have the courage to resist threat and aggression by stronger Communist neighbors.[82]
President Truman announced that the US would counter "unprovoked aggression" and "vigorously support the effort of the [UN] security council to terminate this serious breach of peace."[80] In Congress, the Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Omar Bradley warned against appeasement, saying that Korea was the place "for drawing the line" against communist expansion. In August 1950, the President and the Secretary of State obtained the consent of Congress to appropriate $12 billion to pay for the military expenses.[80]
Per State Secretary Acheson's recommendation, President Truman ordered General MacArthur to transfer materiel to the Army of the Republic of Korea while giving air cover to the evacuation of US nationals. The President disagreed with advisors who recommended unilateral US bombing of the North Korean forces, and ordered the US Seventh Fleet to protect the Republic of China (Taiwan), whose Nationalist Government asked to fight in Korea. The US denied the Nationalist Chinese request for combat, lest it provoke a communist Chinese retaliation.[83] Because the US had sent the Seventh Fleet to "neutralize" the Taiwan Strait, Chinese premier Zhou Enlai criticized both the UN and US initiatives as "armed aggression on Chinese territory."[84]
The Battle of Osan, the first significant American engagement of the Korean War, involved the 540-soldier Task Force Smith, which was a small forward element of the 24th Infantry Division.[85] On 5 July 1950, Task Force Smith attacked the North Koreans at Osan but without weapons capable of destroying the North Koreans' tanks. They were unsuccessful; the result was 180 dead, wounded, or taken prisoner. The KPA progressed southwards, pushing back the US force at Pyongtaek, Chonan, and Chochiwon, forcing the 24th Division's retreat to Taejeon, which the KPA captured in the Battle of Taejon;[86] the 24th Division suffered 3,602 dead and wounded and 2,962 captured, including the Division's Commander, Major General William F. Dean.[86] Overhead, the KPAF shot down 18 USAF fighters and 29 bombers; the USAF shot down five KPAF fighters.[citation needed]
By August, the KPA had pushed back the ROK Army and the Eighth United States Army to the vicinity of Pusan, in southeast Korea.[87] In their southward advance, the KPA purged the Republic of Korea's intelligentsia by killing civil servants and intellectuals.[88] On 20 August, General MacArthur warned North Korean leader Kim Il-Sung that he was responsible for the KPA's atrocities.[88] By September, the UN Command controlled only the Pusan perimeter, enclosing only about 10% of Korea, in a line partially defined by the Nakdong River.
Although Kim's early successes had led him to predict that he would end the war by the end of August, Chinese leaders were more pessimistic. To counter the possibility of American invasion, Zhou Enlai secured a Soviet commitment to have the USSR support Chinese forces with air cover, and deployed 260,000 soldiers along the Korean border, under the command of Gao Gang. Zhou commanded Chai Chengwen to conduct a topographical survey of Korea, and directed Lei Yingfu, Zhou's military advisor in Korea, to analyze the military situation in Korea. Lei concluded that Macarthur would most likely attempt a landing at Incheon. After conferring with Mao that this would be MacArthur's most likely strategy, Zhou briefed Soviet and North Korean advisers of Lei's findings, and issued orders to Chinese army commanders deployed on the Korean border to prepare for American naval activity in the Korea Strait.[89]
In the resulting Battle of Pusan Perimeter (August–September 1950), the US Army withstood KPA attacks meant to capture the city at the Naktong Bulge, P'ohang-dong, and Taegu. The United States Air Force (USAF) interrupted KPA logistics with 40 daily ground support sorties that destroyed 32 bridges, halting most daytime road and rail traffic. KPA forces were forced to hide in tunnels by day and move only at night.[90]To deny materiel to the KPA, the USAF destroyed logistics depots, petroleum refineries, and harbors, while the US Navy air forces attacked transport hubs. Consequently, the over-extended KPA could not be supplied throughout the south.[91]
Meanwhile, US garrisons in Japan continually dispatched soldiers and materiel to reinforce defenders in the Pusan Perimeter.[92] Tank battalions deployed to Korea directly from the United States mainland from the port of San Francisco to the port of Pusan, the largest Korean port. By late August, the Pusan Perimeter had some 500 medium tanks battle ready.[93] In early September 1950, ROK Army and UN Command forces outnumbered the KPA 180,000 to 100,000 soldiers. The UN forces, once prepared, counterattacked and broke out of the Pusan Perimeter.[18][94]
Against the rested and re-armed Pusan Perimeter defenders and their reinforcements, the KPA were undermanned and poorly supplied; unlike the UN Command, they lacked naval and air support.[95] To relieve the Pusan Perimeter, General MacArthur recommended an amphibious landing at Inchon, well over 100 miles (160 km) behind the KPA lines.[96] On 6 July, he ordered Major General Hobart R. Gay, Commander, 1st Cavalry Division, to plan the division's amphibious landing at Incheon; on 12–14 July, the 1st Cavalry Division embarked from Yokohama, Japan to reinforce the 24th Infantry Division inside the Pusan Perimeter.[97]
Soon after the war began, General MacArthur had begun planning a landing at Incheon, but the Pentagon opposed him.[96] When authorized, he activated a combined United States Army, United States Marine Corps, and ROK Army force. The X Corps, led by General Edward Almond, Commander, consisted of 40,000 men of the 1st Marine Division, the 7th Infantry Division and around 8,600 ROK Army soldiers.[98] By the 15 September attack date, the amphibious assault force faced few KPA defenders at Incheon: military intelligence, psychological warfare, guerrilla reconnaissance, and protracted bombardment facilitated a relatively light battle. However, the bombardment destroyed most of the city of Incheon.[99]
After the Incheon landing the 1st Cavalry Division began its northward advance from the Pusan Perimeter. "Task Force Lynch"—3rd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, and two 70th Tank Battalion units (Charlie Company and the Intelligence–Reconnaissance Platoon)— effected the "Pusan Perimeter Breakout" through 106.4 miles (171.2 km) of enemy territory to join the 7th Infantry Division at Osan.[97] The X Corps rapidly defeated the KPA defenders around Seoul, thus threatening to trap the main KPA force in Southern Korea,[100].
On 18 September Stalin dispatched General H.M. Zakharov to Korea to advise Kim Il-sung to halt his offensive around the Pusan perimeter and to redeploy his forces to defend Seoul. Chinese commanders were not briefed on North Korean troop numbers or operational plans. As the overall commander of Chinese forces, Zhou Enlai suggested that the North Koreans should attempt to eliminate the enemy forces at Inchon only if they had reserves of at least 100,000 men; otherwise, he advised the North Koreans to withdraw their forces north.[101]
On 25 September Seoul was recaptured by South Korean forces. American air raids caused heavy damage to the KPA, destroying most of its tanks and much of its artillery. North Korean troops in the south, instead of effectively withdrawing north, rapidly disintegrated, leaving Pyongyang vulnerable.[101] During the general retreat only 25,000 to 30,000 soldiers managed to rejoin the Northern KPA lines.[102][103] On 27 September Stalin convened an emergency session of the Politburo, in which he condemned the incompetence of the KPA command and held Soviet military advisers responsible for the defeat.
rces cross partition line (September – October 1950) On 27 September, MacArthur received the top secret National Security Council Memorandum 81/1 from Truman reminding him that operations north of the 38th parallel were authorized only if "at the time of such operation there was no entry into North Korea by major Soviet or Chinese Communist forces, no announcements of intended entry, nor a threat to counter our operations militarily..."[104] On 29 September MacArthur restored the government of the Republic of Korea under Syngman Rhee.[101] On 30 September, Defense Secretary George Marshall sent an eyes-only message to MacArthur: "We want you to feel unhampered tactically and strategically to proceed north of the 38th parallel."[104] During October, the ROK police executed people who were suspected to be sympathetic to North Korea.On 30 September Zhou Enlai warned the United States that it was prepared to intervene in Korea if the United States crossed the 38th parallel. Zhou attempted to advise North Korean commanders on how to conduct a general withdrawal by using the same tactics which had allowed Chinese communist forces to successfully escape Chiang Kai-shek's Encirclement Campaigns in the 1930s. North Korean commanders did not utilize these tactics effectively.[105]
By 1 October 1950, the UN Command repelled the KPA northwards, past the 38th parallel; the ROK Army crossed after them, into North Korea.[106] MacArthur made a statement demanding the KPA's unconditional surrender.[107] Six days later, on 7 October, with UN authorization, the UN Command forces followed the ROK forces northwards.[108] The X Corps landed at Wonsan (in southeastern North Korea) and Riwon (in northeastern North Korea), already captured by ROK forces.[109] The Eighth United States Army and the ROK Army drove up western Korea and captured Pyongyang city, the North Korean capital, on 19 October 1950.[110] The 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team ("Rakkasans") made their first of the only two combat jumps during the Korean War on 20 October 1950 at Sunchon and Sukchon. The missions of the 187th were to cut the road north going to China, preventing North Korean leaders from escaping from Pyongyang; and to rescue American prisoners of war. At month's end, UN forces held 135,000 KPA prisoners of war.
Taking advantage of the UN Command's strategic momentum against the communists, General MacArthur believed it necessary to extend the Korean War into China to destroy depots supplying the North Korean war effort. President Truman disagreed, and ordered caution at the Sino-Korean border.[111]
On 27 June 1950, two days after the KPA invaded and three months before the Chinese entered the war, President Truman dispatched the United States Seventh Fleet to the Taiwan Strait, to protect the Nationalist Republic of China (Taiwan) from the People's Republic of China (PRC).[112] On 4 August 1950, with the PRC invasion of Taiwan aborted, Mao Zedong reported to the Politburo that he would intervene in Korea when the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) Taiwan invasion force was reorganized into the PLA North East Frontier Force.
On 20 August 1950, Premier Zhou Enlai informed the United Nations that "Korea is China's neighbor... The Chinese people cannot but be concerned about a solution of the Korean question". Thus, via neutral-country diplomats, China warned that in safeguarding Chinese national security, they would intervene against the UN Command in Korea.[111] President Truman interpreted the communication as "a bald attempt to blackmail the UN", and dismissed it.[113]
1 October 1950, the day that UN troops crossed the 38th parallel, was also the first anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. On that day the Soviet ambassador forwarded a telegram from Stalin to Mao and Zhou requesting that China send five to six divisions into Korea, and Kim Il-sung sent frantic appeals to Mao to request Chinese military intervention. At the same time, Stalin made it clear that Soviet forces themselves would not directly intervene.[107]
In a series of emergency meetings that lasted from 2–5 October, Chinese leaders debated whether to send Chinese troops into Korea. There was considerable resistance among many leaders, including senior military leaders, to confronting the United States in Korea. Mao strongly supported intervention, and Zhou was one of the few Chinese leaders who firmly supported him. After General Lin Biao refused Mao's offer to command Chinese forces in Korea (citing poor health), Mao called General Peng Dehuai to Beijing to hear his views. After listening to both sides' arguments, Peng supported Mao's position, and the Politburo agreed to intervene in Korea.[114] Later, the Chinese claimed that US bombers had violated PRC national airspace while en route to bomb North Korea before China intervened.[115] On 8 October 1950, Mao Zedong redesignated the PLA North East Frontier Force as the Chinese People's Volunteer Army (PVA).[116]
In order to enlist Stalin's support, Zhou traveled to Stalin's summer resort on the Black Sea on 10 October. Stalin initially agreed to send military equipment and ammunition, but warned Zhou that the USSR's air force would need two or three months to prepare any operations. In a subsequent meeting, Stalin told Zhou that he would only provide China with equipment on a credit basis, and that the Soviet air force would only operate over Chinese airspace, and only after an undisclosed period of time. Stalin did not agree to send either military equipment or air support until March 1951.[117] Mao did not find Soviet air support especially useful, as the fighting was going to take place on the south side of the Yalu.[118] Soviet shipments of materiel, when they did arrive, were limited to small quantities of trucks, grenades, machine guns, and the like.[119]
Immediately on his return to Beijing on 18 October 1950, Zhou met with
Mao Zedong, Peng Dehuai, and Gao Gang, and the group ordered two hundred
thousand Chinese troops to enter North Korea, which they did on 25 October.
After consulting with Stalin, on 13 November, Mao appointed Zhou the overall
commander and coordinator of the war effort, with Peng as field commander.
Orders given by Zhou were delivered in the name of the Central Military
Commission. UN aerial reconnaissance had difficulty sighting PVA units in daytime,
because their march and
bivouac discipline minimized aerial detection.[121]
The PVA marched "dark-to-dark" (19:00–03:00), and aerial camouflage
(concealing soldiers, pack animals, and equipment) was deployed by 05:30.
Meanwhile, daylight advance parties scouted for the next bivouac site.
During daylight activity or marching, soldiers were to remain motionless if
an aircraft appeared, until it flew away;[121]
PVA officers were under order to shoot security violators. Such battlefield
discipline allowed a three-division
army to march the 286 miles (460 km) from An-tung, Manchuria to the combat
zone in some 19 days. Another division night-marched a circuitous mountain
route, averaging 18 miles (29 km) daily for 18 days.[27] Meanwhile, on 10 October 1950, the 89th Tank Battalion was attached to
the 1st Cavalry Division, increasing the armor available for the Northern
Offensive. On 15 October, after moderate KPA resistance, the 7th Cavalry
Regiment and Charlie Company, 70th Tank Battalion captured Namchonjam city.
On 17 October, they flanked rightwards, away from the principal road (to
Pyongyang), to capture
Hwangju.
Two days later, the 1st Cavalry Division captured Pyongyang, the North's
capital city, on 19 October 1950. On 15 October 1950, President Truman and General MacArthur met at
Wake
Island in the mid-Pacific Ocean. This meeting was much publicized
because of the General's discourteous refusal to meet the President on the
continental US.[122]
To President Truman, MacArthur speculated there was little risk of Chinese
intervention in Korea,[123]
and that the PRC's opportunity for aiding the KPA had lapsed. He believed
the PRC had some 300,000 soldiers in Manchuria, and some 100,000–125,000
soldiers at the Yalu River. He further concluded that, although half of
those forces might cross south, "if the Chinese tried to get down to
Pyongyang, there would be the greatest slaughter" without air force during their
breakout from the Chosin Reservoir.
After secretly crossing the Yalu River on 19 October, the PVA 13th Army
Group launched the First Phase Offensive on 25 October, attacking the
advancing UN forces near the Sino-Korean border. After decimating the ROK
II Corps at the
Battle of Onjong, the first confrontation between Chinese and US
military occurred on 1 November 1950; deep in North Korea, thousands of
soldiers from the PVA 39th Army
encircled and attacked the US
8th Cavalry Regiment with three-prong assaults—from the north,
northwest, and west—and overran the defensive position flanks in the
Battle of Unsan.[125]
The surprise assault resulted in the UN forces retreating back to the
Ch'ongch'on River, while the Chinese unexpectedly disappeared into
mountain hideouts following victory. It is unclear why the Chinese did not
press the attack and follow-up their victory. The UN Command, however, were unconvinced that the Chinese had openly
intervened due to the sudden Chinese withdrawal. On 24 November, the
Home-by-Christmas Offensive was launched with the US Eighth Army
advancing in northwest Korea, while the US X Corps were attacking along the
Korean east coast. But the Chinese were waiting in ambush with their
Second Phase Offensive. On 25 November at the Korean western front, the PVA 13th Army Group
attacked and over-ran the ROK II Corps at the
Battle of the Ch'ongch'on River, and then decimated the US
2nd Infantry Division on the UN forces' right flank.[126]
The UN Command retreated; the US Eighth Army's retreat (the longest in US
Army history)[127]
was made possible because of the
Turkish Brigade's successful, but very costly, rear-guard
delaying action near Kunuri that slowed the PVA attack for two days
(27–9 November). On 27 November at the Korean eastern front, a US
7th Infantry Division Regimental Combat Team (3,000 soldiers) and the US
1st Marine Division (12,000–15,000 marines) were unprepared for the PVA
9th Army Group's three-pronged encirclement tactics at the
Battle of Chosin Reservoir, but they managed to escape under Air Force
and X Corps support fire—albeit with some 15,000 collective casualties.[128] By 30 November, the PVA 13th Army Group managed to expel the US Eighth
Army from northwest Korea. Retreating from the north faster than they had
counter-invaded, the Eighth Army crossed the 38th parallel border in mid
December.[129]
The UN morale hit rock bottom when commanding General
Walton Walker of the US Eighth Army was killed on 23 December 1950 in an
automobile accident.[130]
In the northeast Korea by 11 December, the US X Corps managed to cripple[131]
the PVA 9th Army Group while establishing a defensive perimeter at the port
city of
Hungnam. The X Corps were forced to evacuate by 24 December in order to
reinforce the badly depleted US Eighth Army to the south.[132][133] During the Hungnam evacuation, about 193 shiploads of UN Command forces
and materiel (approximately 105,000 soldiers, 98,000 civilians, 17,500
vehicles, and 350,000 tons of supplies) were evacuated to Pusan.[134]
The
SS Meredith Victory was noted for evacuating 14,000 refugees, the
largest rescue operation by a single ship, even though it was designed to
hold only 12 passengers. Before escaping, the UN Command forces
razed most of Hungnam city, especially the port facilities;[102][135]
and on 16 December 1950, President Truman declared a
national emergency with Presidential Proclamation No. 2914, 3 C.F.R. 99
(1953),[136]
which remained in force until 14 September 1978.[b] With Lieutenant-General
Matthew Ridgway assuming the command of the US Eighth Army on 26
December, the PVA and the KPA launched their Third Phase Offensive
(also known as the "Chinese New Year's Offensive") on New Year's Eve of
1950. Utilizing night attacks in which UN Command fighting positions were
encircled and then assaulted by numerically superior troops who had the
element of surprise. The attacks were accompanied by loud trumpets and
gongs, which fulfilled the double purpose of facilitating tactical
communication and mentally disorienting the enemy. UN forces initially had
no familiarity with this tactic, and as a result some soldiers "bugged out,"
abandoning their weapons and retreating to the south.[137]
The Chinese New Year's Offensive overwhelmed UN forces, allowing the PVA and
KPA to
conquer Seoul for the second time on 4 January 1951. These setbacks prompted General MacArthur to consider using
nuclear weapons against the Chinese or North Korean interiors, intending
radioactive fallout zones would interrupt the Chinese supply chains.[138]
However, upon the arrival of the charismatic General Ridgway, the esprit
de corps of the bloodied Eighth Army immediately began to revive.[139] UN forces retreated to
Suwon in the
west, Wonju
in the center, and the territory north of
Samcheok
in the east, where the battlefront stabilized and held.[137]
The PVA had outrun its logistics capability and thus was forced to recoil
from pressing the attack beyond Seoul;[140]
food, ammunition, and materiel were carried nightly, on foot and bicycle,
from the border at the Yalu River to the three battle lines. In late
January, upon finding that the PVA had abandoned their battle lines, General
Ridgway ordered a reconnaissance-in-force, which became
Operation Roundup (5 February 1951)[141].
A full-scale X Corps advance gradually proceeded while fully exploiting the
UN Command's air superiority,[142]
concluded with the UN reaching the
Han River and recapturing
Wonju.[141] In mid-February, the PVA counterattacked with the Fourth Phase
Offensive and achieved initial victory at
Hoengseong. But the offensive was soon blunted by the
IX Corps positions at
Chipyong-ni in the center.[141]
Units of the
US 2nd Infantry Division and the
French Battalion fought a short but desperate battle that broke the
attack's momentum.[141]
The battle is sometimes known as the Gettysburg of the Korean War. The
battle saw 5,600 Korean, American and French defeat a numerically superior
Chinese force. Surrounded on all sides, the
US 2nd Infantry Division Warrior Division's 23rd Regimental Combat Team
with an attached French Battalion was hemmed in by more than 25,000 Chinese
Communist Forces. United Nations Forces had previously retreated in the face
of large Communist forces instead of getting cut off, but this time they
stood and fought. The allies fought at odds of roughly 15 to 1.[143] In the last two weeks of February 1951, Operation Roundup was
followed by
Operation Killer, carried out by the revitalized Eighth Army. It was
a full-scale, battlefront-length attack staged for maximum exploitation of
firepower to kill as many KPA and PVA troops as possible.[141]
Operation Killer concluded with
I Corps re-occupying the territory south of the Han River, and IX Corps
capturing Hoengseong.[144]
On 7 March 1951, the Eighth Army attacked with
Operation Ripper, expelling the PVA and the KPA from Seoul on 14
March 1951. This was the city's fourth conquest in a years' time, leaving it
a ruin; the 1.5 million pre-war population was down to 200,000, and people
were suffering from severe food shortages.[144][103] On 1 March 1951 Mao sent a cable to Stalin, in which he emphasized the
difficulties faced by Chinese forces and the urgent need for air cover,
especially over supply lines. Apparently impressed by the Chinese war
effort, Stalin finally agreed to supply two air force divisions, three
anti-aircraft divisions, and six thousand trucks. PVA troops in Korea
continued to suffer severe logistical problems throughout the war. In late
April Peng Dehuai sent his deputy,
Hong
Xuezhi, to brief Zhou Enlai in Beijing. What Chinese soldiers feared,
Hong said, was not the enemy, but that they had nothing to eat, no bullets
to shoot, and no trucks to transport them to the rear when they were
wounded. Zhou attempted to respond to the PVA's logistical concerns by
increasing Chinese production and improving methods of supply, but these
efforts were never completely sufficient. At the same time, large-scale air
defense training programs were carried out, and the
Chinese Air Force began to participate in the war from September 1951
onward.[145] On 11 April 1951, Commander-in-Chief Truman relieved the controversial
General MacArthur, the Supreme Commander in Korea.[146]
There were several reasons for the dismissal. MacArthur had crossed the 38th
parallel in the mistaken belief that the Chinese would not enter the war,
leading to major allied losses. He believed that whether or not to use
nuclear weapons should be his own decision, not the President's.[147]
MacArthur threatened to destroy China unless it surrendered. While MacArthur
felt total victory was the only honorable outcome, Truman was more
pessimistic about his chances once involved in a land war in Asia, and felt
a truce and orderly withdrawal from Korea could be a valid solution.[148]
MacArthur was the subject of congressional hearings in May and June 1951,
which determined that he had defied the orders of the President and thus had
violated the
US Constitution.[149]
A popular criticism of MacArthur was that he never spent a night in Korea,
and directed the war from the safety of Tokyo.[150] General Ridgway was appointed Supreme Commander, Korea; he regrouped the
UN forces for successful counterattacks,[151]
while General
James Van Fleet assumed command of the US Eighth Army.[152]
Further attacks slowly depleted the PVA and KPA forces; Operations
Courageous (23–28 March 1951) and
Tomahawk (23 March 1951) were a joint ground and airborne
infilltration meant to trap Chinese forces between Kaesong and Seoul. UN
forces advanced to "Line Kansas," north of the 38th parallel.[153]
The
187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team ("Rakkasans") second of two combat
jumps were on Easter Sunday, 1951 at
Munsan-ni, South Korea codenamed
Operation Tomahawk. The mission was to get behind Chinese forces and
block their movement north. The 60th Indian Parachute Field Ambulance
provided the medical cover for the operations, dropping an ADS and a
surgical team and treating over 400 battle casualties apart from the
civilian casualties that formed the core of their objective as the unit was
on a humanitarian mission. The Chinese counterattacked in April 1951, with the Fifth Phase
Offensive (also known as the "Chinese Spring Offensive") with three
field armies (approximately 700,000 men).[154]
The offensive's first thrust fell upon I Corps, which fiercely resisted in
the
Battle of the Imjin River (22–25 April 1951) and the
Battle of Kapyong (22–25 April 1951), blunting the impetus of the
offensive, which was halted at the "No-name Line" north of Seoul.[155]
On 15 May 1951, the Chinese commenced the second impulse of the Spring
Offensive and attacked the ROK Army and the US X Corps in the east. After
initial success, they were halted by 20 May.[156]
At month's end, the US Eighth Army counterattacked and regained "Line
Kansas," just north of the 38th parallel.[157]
The UN's "Line Kansas" halt and subsequent offensive action stand-down began
the stalemate that lasted until the armistice of 1953. For the remainder of the Korean War the UN Command and the PVA fought,
but exchanged little territory; the stalemate held. Large-scale bombing of
North Korea continued, and protracted armistice negotiations began 10 July
1951 at Kaesong.[158]
On the Chinese side, Zhou Enlai directed peace talks, and
Li Kenong
and Qiao Guanghua headed the negotiation team.[145]
Combat continued while the belligerents negotiated; the UN Command forces'
goal was to recapture all of South Korea and to avoid losing territory.[159]
The PVA and the KPA attempted similar operations, and later effected
military and psychological operations in order to test the UN Command's
resolve to continue the war. The principal battles of the stalemate include the
Battle of Bloody Ridge (18 August – 15 September 1951),[160]
the
Battle of Heartbreak Ridge (13 September – 15 October 1951),[161]
the
Battle of Old Baldy (26 June – 4 August 1952), the
Battle of White Horse (6–15 October 1952), the
Battle of Triangle Hill (14 October – 25 November 1952), the
Battle of Hill Eerie (21 March – 21 June 1952), the sieges of
Outpost Harry (10–8 June 1953), the
Battle of the Hook (28–9 May 1953) and the
Battle of Pork Chop Hill (23 March – 16 July 1953). Chinese troops suffered from deficient military equipment, serious
logistical problems, overextended communication and supply lines, and the
constant threat of UN bombers. All of these factors generally led to a rate
of Chinese casualties that was far greater than the casualties suffered by
UN troops. The situation became so serious that, on November 1951, Zhou
Enlai called a conference in
Shenyang
to discuss the PVA's logistical problems. "At the meeting it was decided to
accelerate the construction of railways and airfields in the area, to
increase the number of trucks available to the army, and to improve air
defense by any means possible. These commitments did little to directly
address the problems confronting PVA troops.[162] In the months after the Shanyang conference Peng Dehuai went to Beijing
several times to brief Mao and Zhou about the heavy casualties suffered by
Chinese troops and the increasing difficulty of keeping the front lines
supplied with basic necessities. Peng was convinced that the war would be
protracted, and that neither side would be able to achieve victory in the
foreseeable future. On 24 February 1952, the
Military Commission, presided over by Zhou, discussed the PVA's
logistical problems with members of various government agencies involved in
the war effort. After the government representatives emphasized their
inability to meet the demands of the war, Peng, in an angry outburst,
shouted: "You have this and that problem... You should go to the front and
see with your own eyes what food and clothing the soldiers have! Not to
speak of the casualties! For what are they giving their lives? We have no
aircraft. We have only a few guns. Transports are not protected. More and
more[164]
first at Kaesong (southern North Korea), then relocated at
The Demilitarized Zone runs northeast of the 38th parallel; to the south,
it travels west. The old Korean capital city of Kaesong, site of the
armistice negotiations, originally lay in the pre-war ROK, but now is in the
DPRK. The United Nations Command, supported by the United States, the North
Korean Korean People's Army, and the Chinese People's Volunteers, signed the
Armistice Agreement on 27 July 1953 to end the fighting. The Armistice
also called upon the governments of South Korea, North Korea, China and the
United States to participate in continued peace talks. The war is considered
allow combatant countries to exchange their dead. The remains of 4,167 US
Army and US Marine Corps dead were exchanged for 13,528 KPA and PVA dead,
and 546 civilians dead in UN prisoner-of-war camps were delivered to the ROK
government.[173]
After Operation Glory, 416 Korean War unknown soldiers were buried in the
National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (The Punchbowl), on the island
of Oahu,
Hawaii.
Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) records indicate
that the PRC and the DPRK transmitted 1,394 names, of which 858 were
correct. From 4,167 containers of returned remains, forensic examination
identified 4,219 individuals. Of these, 2,944 were identified as American,
and all but 416 were identified by name.[174]
From 1996 to 2006, the DPRK recovered 220 remains near the Sino-Korean
border.[175] The
Korean Armistice Agreement provided for monitoring by an international
commission. Since 1953, the
Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission (NNSC), composed of members from
the Swiss[176]
and Swedish[177]
Armed Forces, has been stationed near the DMZ. Since the armistice, there have been numerous incursions and acts of
aggression by North Korea. In 1976, the
axe murder incident was widely publicized. Since 1974,
four incursion tunnels leading to
Seoul have
been uncovered. In 2010, a North Korean submarine torpedoed and sank the
South Korean corvette
ROKS Cheonan, resulting in the deaths of 46 sailors.[178]
Again in 2010, North Korea
fired artillery shells on Yeonpyeong island, killing two military
personnel and two civilians.[179] According to the data from the
US Department of Defense, the United States had suffered 33,686 battle
deaths, along with 2,830 non-battle deaths during the Korean War and 8,176
missing in action.[180]
Western sources estimate the PVA had suffered between 100,000 to 1,500,000
deaths (most estimate some 400,000 killed), while the KPA had suffered
between 214,000 to 520,000 deaths (most estimate some 500,000). Between some
245,000 to 415,000 South Korean civilian deaths were also suggested, and the
total civilian casualties during the war were estimated as 1,500,000 to
3,000,000 (most sources estimate some 2,000,000 killed).[181] Data from official Chinese sources, on the other hand, reported that the
PVA had suffered 114,000 battle deaths, 34,000 non-battle deaths, 340,000
wounded, 7,600 missing and 21,400 captured during the war. Among those
captured, about 14,000 defected to Taiwan while the other 7,110 were
repatriated to China.[182]
Chinese sources also reported that North Korea had suffered 290,000
casualties, 90,000 captured and a "large" number of civilian deaths.[182]
In return, the Chinese and North Koreans estimated that about 390,000
soldiers from United States, 660,000 soldiers from South Korea and 29,000
other UN soldiers were "eliminated" from the battlefield.[182] Initially, North Korean armor dominated the battlefield with Soviet
T-34-85 medium tanks designed during the Second World War.[183]
The KPA's tanks confronted a tankless ROK Army armed with few modern
anti-tank weapons,[184]
including American World War II–model 2.36-inch (60 mm) M9
bazookas,
effective only against the 45 mm side armor of the T-34-85 tank.[185]
The US forces arriving in Korea were equipped with light
M24
Chaffee tanks (on occupation duty in nearby Japan) that also proved
ineffective against the heavier KPA T-34 tanks.[186] During the initial hours of warfare, some under-equipped ROK Army border
units used American
105 mm howitzers as
anti-tank guns to stop the tanks heading the KPA columns, firing
high-explosive anti-tank ammunition (HEAT) over open sights to good
effect; at the war's start, the ROK Army had 91 howitzers, but lost most to
the invaders.[187] Countering the initial combat imbalance, the UN Command reinforcement
materiel included heavier US
M4
Sherman,
M26
Pershing,
M46
Patton, and British
Cromwell and
Centurion tanks that proved effective against North Korean armor, ending
its battlefield dominance.[188]
Unlike in the Second World War (1939–45), in which the tank proved a
decisive weapon, the Korean War featured few large-scale tank battles. The
mountainous, heavily forested terrain prevented large masses of tanks from
maneuvering. In Korea, tanks served largely as infantry support and mobile
The Korean War was the first war in which
jet
aircraft played a central role. Once-formidable fighters such as the
P-51 Mustang,
F4U Corsair, and
Hawker Sea Fury[189]—all
piston-engined, propeller-driven, and designed during World War
II—relinquished their air superiority roles to a new generation of faster,
jet-powered
fighters arriving in the theater. For the initial months of the war, the
P-80 Shooting Star,
F9F Panther, and other jets under the UN flag dominated North Korea's
prop-driven air force of Soviet
Yakovlev Yak-9 and
Lavochkin La-9s. The balance would shift with the arrival of the
swept
wing Soviet
MiG-15 Fagot.[190][191] The Chinese intervention in late October 1950 bolstered the
Korean People's Air Force (KPAF) of North Korea with the MiG-15 Fagot,
one of the world's most advanced jet fighters.[190]
The fast, heavily armed MiG outflew first-generation UN jets such as the
American F-80 and
Australian and British
Gloster Meteors, posing a real threat to
B-29 Superfortress bombers even under fighter escort.
Soviet Air Force pilots flew missions for the North to learn the West's
aerial combat techniques. This direct Soviet participation is a
casus
belli that the UN Command deliberately overlooked, lest the war for
the Korean peninsula expand, as the US initially feared, to include three
communist countries—North Korea, the Soviet Union, and China—and so escalate
to atomic warfare.[190] The USAF moved quickly to counter the MiG-15, with three squadrons of its
most capable fighter, the
F-86 Sabre, arriving in December 1950.[192][193]
Although the MiG's higher
service ceiling—50,000 feet (15,000 m) vs. 42,000 feet (13,000 m)—could
be advantageous at the start of a
dogfight,
in level flight, both swept wing designs attained comparable maximum speeds
of around 660 mph (1,100 km/h). The MiG climbed faster, but the Sabre turned
and dived better.[194]
The MiG was armed with one 37 mm and two 23 mm cannons, while the Sabre
carried six .50 caliber (12.7 mm) machine guns aimed with radar-ranged
gunsights. By early 1951, the battle lines were established and changed little until
1953. In summer and autumn 1951, the outnumbered Sabres of the USAF's
4th Fighter Interceptor Wing—only 44 at one point—continued seeking
battle in
MiG Alley, where the
Yalu
River marks the Chinese border, against Chinese and North Korean air
forces capable of deploying some 500 aircraft. Following Colonel
Harrison Thyng's communication with the Pentagon, the
51st Fighter-Interceptor Wing finally reinforced the beleaguered 4th
Wing in December 1951; for the next year-and-a-half stretch of the war,
aerial warfare continued.[195] UN forces gradually gained
air superiority in the Korean theater. This was decisive for the UN:
first, for attacking into the peninsular north, and second, for resisting
the Chinese intervention.[188]
North Korea and China also had jet-powered air forces; their limited
training and experience made it strategically untenable to lose them against
the better-trained UN air forces. Thus, the US and USSR fed materiel to the
war, battling by proxy and finding themselves virtually matched,
technologically, when the USAF deployed the F-86F against the MiG-15 late in
1952. After the war, and to the present day, the USAF reports an F-86 Sabre
kill ratio in excess of 10:1, with 792 MiG-15s and 108 other aircraft
shot down by Sabres, and 78 Sabres lost to enemy fire.[196]
The Soviet Air Force reported some 1,100 air-to-air victories and 335 MiG
combat losses, while China's
People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) reported 231 combat losses,
mostly MiG-15s, and 168 other aircraft lost. The KPAF reported no data, but
the UN Command estimates some 200 KPAF aircraft lost in the war's first
stage, and 70 additional aircraft after the Chinese intervention. The USAF
disputes Soviet and Chinese claims of 650 and 211 downed F-86s,
respectively. However, one unconfirmed source claims that the US Air Force
has more recently cited 230 losses out of 674 F-86s deployed to Korea.[194]
The differing tactical roles of the F-86 and MiG-15 may have contributed to
the disparity in losses: MiG-15s primarily targeted B-29 bombers and
ground-attack fighter-bombers, while F-86s targeted the MiGs. The Korean War marked a major milestone not only for fixed-wing aircraft,
but also for
rotorcraft, featuring the first large-scale deployment of
helicopters for
medical evacuation (medevac).[197]
In 1944–1945, during the Second World War, the
YR-4 helicopter saw limited ambulance duty, but in Korea, where rough
terrain trumped the
jeep as a speedy medevac vehicle,[198]
helicopters like the
Sikorsky H-19 helped reduce fatal casualties to a dramatic degree when
combined with complementary medical innovations such as
Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals.[199]
The limitations of jet aircraft for
close air support highlighted the helicopter's potential in the role,
leading to development of the
AH-1 Cobra and other helicopter gunships used in the
Vietnam War (1965–75).[197] On 12 August 1950 the USAF dropped 625 tons of bombs on North Korea; two
weeks later, the daily tonnage increased to some 800 tons.[200]
U.S. warplanes dropped more napalm and bombs on North Korea than they did
during the whole Pacific campaign of World War II.[201] As a result, eighteen of North Korea's cities were more than 50%
destroyed. The war's highest-ranking American POW, US Major General
William F. Dean,[202]
reported that most of the North Korean cities and villages he saw were
either ruins or snow-covered wastelands.[203] As well as conventional bombing, the Communist side
claimed that the US had used biological weapons.[204] Because neither Korea had a large navy, the Korean War featured few naval
battles; mostly the combatant navies served as naval artillery for their
in-country armies. A skirmish between North Korea and the UN Command
occurred on 2 July 1950; the US Navy cruiser
USS Juneau, the Royal Navy cruiser
HMS Jamaica, and the frigate
HMS Black Swan fought four North Korean torpedo boats and two
mortar gunboats, and sank them. During most of the war, the UN navies patrolled the west and east coasts
of North Korea and sank supply and ammunition ships to deny the sea to North
Korea. Aside from very occasional gunfire from North Korean shore batteries,
the main threat to US and UN navy ships was from magnetic mines the North
Koreans employed for defensive purposes. The USS Juneau sank ammunition ships that had been present in her
previous battle. The last sea battle of the Korean War occurred at Inchon,
days before the Battle of Incheon; the ROK ship PC 703 sank a North
Korean mine layer in the
Battle of Haeju Island, near Inchon. Three other supply ships were sunk
by PC-703 two days later in the
Yellow
Sea.[205] On 5 April 1950, the
Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) issued orders for the retaliatory atomic
bombing of Manchurian PRC military bases, if either their armies crossed
into Korea or if PRC or KPA bombers attacked Korea from there. The President
ordered the transfer of nine
Mark 4 nuclear bombs "to the Air Force's Ninth Bomb Group, the
designated carrier of the weapons ... [and] signed an order to use them
against Chinese and Korean targets", which he never transmitted.[206] President Truman did not immediately threaten
nuclear warfare after the October 1950 Chinese intervention, but, 45
days later, remarked about the possibility of using it after the PVA
repelled the UN Command from North Korea. In The Origins of the Korean War (1981, 1990), US historian
Bruce Cumings reports that in a 30 November 1950 press conference,
President Truman's allusions to attacking the KPA with nuclear weapons "was
a threat based on contingency planning to use the bomb, rather than the faux
pas so many assumed it to be." On 30 November 1950, the USAF
Strategic Air Command was ordered to "augment its capacities, and that
this should include atomic capabilities."[citation
needed] The Indian Ambassador,
K. Madhava Panikkar, reports "that Truman announced that he was thinking
of using the atom bomb in Korea. But the Chinese seemed totally unmoved by
this threat ... The propaganda against American aggression was stepped up.
The 'Aid Korea to resist America' campaign was made the slogan for increased
production, greater national integration, and more rigid control over
anti-national activities. One could not help feeling that Truman's threat
came in very useful to the leaders of the Revolution, to enable them to keep
up the tempo of their activities."[102][207][208] President Truman remarked that his government was actively considering
using the atomic bomb to end the war in Korea but that only he—the US
President—commanded atomic bomb use, and that he had not given
authorization. The matter of atomic warfare was solely a US decision, not
the collective decision of the UN. Truman met on 4 December 1950 with UK
prime minister and Commonwealth spokesman
Clement Attlee, French Premier
René
Pleven, and Foreign Minister
Robert Schuman to discuss their worries about atomic warfare and its
likely continental expansion. The US's forgoing atomic warfare was not
because of "a disinclination by the USSR and PRC to escalate" the Korean
War, but because UN allies—notably from the UK, the Commonwealth, and
France—were concerned about a
geopolitical imbalance rendering NATO defenseless while the US fought
China, who then might persuade the USSR to conquer Western Europe.[102][209] On 6 December 1950, after the Chinese intervention repelled the UN
Command armies from northern North Korea, General
J. Lawton Collins (Army Chief of Staff), General MacArthur, Admiral
C. Turner Joy, General
George E. Stratemeyer, and staff officers Major General Doyle Hickey,
Major General
Charles A. Willoughby, and Major General Edwin K. Wright, met in Tokyo
to plan strategy countering the Chinese intervention; they considered three
potential atomic warfare scenarios encompassinging the next weeks and months
of warfare.[102] In 1951, the US escalated closest to atomic warfare in Korea. Because the
PRC had deployed new armies to the Sino-Korean frontier, pit crews at the
Kadena Air Base,
Okinawa, assembled atomic bombs for Korean warfare, "lacking only the
essential
pit nuclear cores." In October 1951, the US effected Operation Hudson
Harbor to establish nuclear weapons capability. USAF B-29 bombers
practised individual bombing runs from Okinawa to North Korea (using dummy
nuclear or conventional bombs), coordinated from
Yokota Air Base in east-central Japan. Hudson Harbor tested
"actual functioning of all activities which would be involved in an atomic
strike, including weapons assembly and testing, leading, ground control of
bomb aiming". The bombing run data indicated that atomic bombs would be
tactically ineffective against massed infantry, because the "timely
identification of large masses of enemy troops was extremely rare."[210][211][212][213][214] In occupied areas, North Korean Army
political officers purged South Korean society of its intelligentsia by
assassinating every educated person—academic, governmental, religious—who
might lead resistance against the North; the purges continued during the NPA
retreat.[215]
Immediately after the invasion in June 1950 the South Korean Government
ordered the nation-wide "pre-emptive apprehension" of politically suspect or
disloyal citizens. The military police and right-wing paramilitary (civilian) armies
executed thousands of left-wing and communist political prisoners at Daejeon
Prison and in the
Jeju Uprising (1948–49).[216]The
Americans on the island documented the events, but never intervened.[49] US diplomat Gregory Henderson, then in Korea, calculates some 100,000
pro-North political prisoners were killed and buried in
mass
graves.[217]
The South Korean
Truth and Reconciliation Commission has compiled reports of hundreds of
thousands of civilian killings before and during the war.[218] In addition to conventional military operations, North Korean soldiers
fought the UN forces by
infiltrating guerrillas among refugees. These soldiers disguised as
refugees would approach UN forces asking for food and help, then open fire
and attack. US troops acted under a "shoot-first-ask-questions-later" policy
against any civilian refugee approaching US battlefield positions,[219]
a policy that led US Soldiers to kill an estimated 400 civilians at
No Gun Ri
(26–29 July 1950) in central Korea because they believed some of the
refugees killed to be North Korean soldiers in disguise.[220] The Korean armies forcibly
conscripted available civilian men and women to their war efforts. In
Statistics of Democide (1997), Prof.
R. J. Rummel reports that the North Korean Army conscripted some 400,000
South Korean citizens.[215]
The South Korean Government reported that the North abducted some 83,000
citizens before the US recaptured Seoul in September 1950; the North says
they
defected.[221][222] To outmaneuver a possible
fifth column in the Republic of Korea, President Syngman Rhee's régime
assassinated its "enemies of the state"—South Koreans who are allegedly
communists, pro-North Korea, or leftist—by first imprisoning them for
political re-education in the Gukmin Bodo Ryeonmaeng (National
Rehabilitation and Guidance League, also known as the Bodo League). The true
purpose of the anti–communist Bodo League, abetted by the
United States Army Military Government in Korea (USAMGIK), was the
régime's assassination of some 10,000 to 100,000 "enemies of the state" whom
they dumped in trenches, mines, and the sea, before and after the 25 June
1950 North Korean invasion. Contemporary calculations report some 200,000 to
1,200,000.[clarification
needed][223]
USAMGIK officers were present at one political execution site; at least one
US officer sanctioned the mass killings of political prisoners whom the
North Koreans would have freed after conquering the peninsular south.[224] The father of Bodo League massacre survivor Kim Jong-chol was
press-ganged to work with the KPA and later executed by the Rhee Government
as a collaborator; his grandparents and a seven-year-old sister also were
assassinated. About his experience in
Namyangju
city, he says: USAMGIK officers photographed the mass killings at Daejon city in central
South Korea, where the Truth Commission believe some 3,000 to 7,000 people
were shot and buried in mass graves in early July 1950. Other declassified
records report that a US Army Lieutenant Colonel approved the assassination
of 3,500 political prisoners by the ROK Army unit to which he was military
advisor when the KPA reached the southern port city of Pusan.[224]
US diplomats reported having urged the Rhee régime's restraint against its
political opponents, and that the USAMGIK, who formally controlled the
peninsular south, did not halt the mass assassinations.[224] The US reported that North Korea mistreated prisoners of war: soldiers
were beaten, starved, put to
forced labor,
marched to death, and
summarily executed.[225][226] The KPA killed POWs at the battles for Hill 312,
Hill 303, the Pusan Perimeter, and Daejeon—discovered during early
after-battle mop-up actions by the UN forces. Later, a US Congress
war
crimes investigation, the United States Senate Subcommittee on Korean
War Atrocities of the Permanent Subcommittee of the Investigations of the
Committee on Government Operations reported that "... two-thirds of all
American prisoners of war in Korea died as a result of war crimes".[227][228][229] Although the Chinese rarely executed prisoners like their Korean
counterparts, mass starvation and diseases swept through the Chinese run POW
camps during the winter of 1950–51. About 43 percent of all US POWs died
during this period. The Chinese defended their actions by stating that all
Chinese soldiers during this period were suffering mass starvation and
diseases due to the lack of competent logistics system. The UN POWs,
however, disputed the claim by pointing out that most of the Chinese camps
were located near the easily supplied Sino-Korean border, and that
starvation was used to force the prisoners to accept the communism
indoctrination programs, which were running in full swing after the
starvation was over.
The North Korean Government reported some 70,000 ROK Army POWs; 8,000
were repatriated. South Korea repatriated 76,000 Korean People's Army POWs.[231]
Besides the 12,000 UN Command forces POWs dead in captivity, the KPA might
have press-ganged some 50,000 ROK POWs into the North Korean military.[215]
Per the
South Korean Ministry of Defense, there remained some 560
Korean POWs detained in North Korea in 2008; from 1994 until 2009, some
79 ROK POWs escaped the North.[232][233] The North Korean Government denied having POWs from the Korean War, and,
via the
Korean Central News Agency, reported that the UN forces killed some
33,600 KPA POWs; that on 19 July 1951, in POW Camp No. 62, some 100 POWs
were killed as machine-gunnery targets; that on 27 May 1952, in the 77th
Camp, Koje
Island (now in
Geoje), the
ROK Army incinerated with flamethrowers some 800 KPA POWs who rejected
"voluntary repatriation" south, and instead demanded repatriation north.[234] In December 1950, National Defense Corps was founded, the soldiers were
406,000 drafted citizens.[235]
In the winter of 1951, 50,000[236][237]
to 90,000[238][239]
South Korean National Defense Corps soldiers starved to death while marching
southward under the Chinese offensive when their commanding officers
embezzled funds earmarked for their food.[236][238][240][241]
This event is called the
National Defense Corps Incident.[236][238]
Fighting around the 38th parallel (January – June 1951)
Stalemate (July 1951 – July 1953)<
Division of Korea (1954–present)
See also:
Division of Korea and
Korean Demilitarized Zone
The
KPAF shot down some 16
B-29 Superfortress bombers in the war.
Bombing North Korea
Naval warfare
To disrupt North Korean communications, the
USS Missouri fires a salvo from its 16-inch guns at
shore targets near
Chongjin, North Korea, 21 October 1950
U.S. threat
of atomic warfare
"MEMO (25 Jul '50) to Gen. Timberlake, USAF; SUBJECT: Policy on
Strafing Civilian Refugees"
2. It is reported that large groups of civilians, either
composed of or controlled by North Korean soldiers, are
infiltrating US positions.
3. The army has requested we strafe all civilian refugee parties
approaching our positions.
4. To date, we have complied with the army request in this
respect.
Civilian
deaths and massacres
Bodo
League anti-communist massacre
Young children or whatever, were all killed en masse. What did the
family do wrong? Why did they kill the family? When the people from
the other side [North Korea] came here, they didn't kill many
people.
—Kim Jong-chol[224]
Prisoners of war
See also:
Korean POWs detained in North Korea and
Hill 303 massacre
Two Hill 303 survivors after being rescued by American units, 17
August 1950
An executed U.S. Army POW of the U.S. 21st Infantry Regiment
killed 9 July 1950. Picture taken 10 July 1950Starvation
See also:
National Defense Corps Incident
Aftermath
Main article:
Aftermath of the Korean War
Chinese Civil War. Mao primarily supported intervention not to save
North Korea or to appease the Soviet Union, but because he believed that a
military conflict with the United States was inevitable after UN forces
crossed the 38th parallel. A secondary motive of Mao's was to improve his
own prestige inside the communist international community by demonstrating
that his Marxist concerns were international. In his later years Mao
believed that Stalin only gained a positive opinion of him after China's
entrance into the Korean War. Inside China, the war improved the long-term
prestige of Mao, Zhou, and Peng.[242]
China emerged from the Korean War united by a sense of national pride, despite the war's enormous costs. The Chinese people were educated to believe that the war was initiated by the United States and Korea, and not by a fraternal communist state in the north. In Chinese propaganda, the Chinese war effort was portrayed and accepted as an example of China's engaging the strongest power in the world with an under-equipped army, forcing it to retreat, and fighting it to a military stalemate. These successes were contrasted with China's historical humiliations by Japan and by Western powers over the previous hundred years in order to promote the image of the PLA and the CCP. The most significant negative long-term consequence of the war (for China) was that it led the United States to guarantee the safety of Chiang Kai-shek's regime in Taiwan, effectively ensuring that Taiwan would remain outside of PRC control until the present day.[242]
The Korean War affected other participant combatants. Turkey, for example, entered NATO in 1952[243] and the foundation for bilateral diplomatic and trade relations was laid.[244]
The beginning of racial integration efforts in the U.S. military began during the Korean War, where African Americans fought in integrated units for the first time. Among the 1.8 million American soldiers who fought in the Korean War there were more than 100,000 African Americans.[245]
Post-war recovery was different in the two Koreas. South Korea stagnated in the first post-war decade, but later industrialized and modernized. Contemporary North Korea remains underdeveloped. South Korea had one of the world's fastest growing economies from the early 1960s to the late 1990s. In 1957 South Korea had a lower per capita GDP than Ghana,[246] and by 2010 it was ranked thirteenth in the world (Ghana was 86th).[247]
Korean anti-Americanism after the war was fueled by the presence and behavior of American military personnel (USFK) and U.S. support for authoritarian regime, a fact still evident during the country's democratic transition in the 1980s.[248] In a February 2002 Gallup-Korea poll, only one-third of South Koreans viewed the United States favorably.[249]
In addition a large number of mixed race 'G.I. babies' (offspring of U.S. and other western soldiers and Korean women) were filling up the country's orphanages. Korean traditional society places significant weight on paternal family ties, bloodlines, and purity of race. Children of mixed race or those without fathers are not easily accepted in Korean society. Thousands were adopted by American families in the years following the war, when their plight was covered on television.[250] The U.S. Immigration Act of 1952 removed race as a limiting factor in immigration, and made possible the entry of military spouses and children from South Korea after the Korean War. With the passage of the Immigration Act of 1965, which substantially changed U.S. immigration policy toward non-Europeans, Koreans became one of the fastest growing Asian groups in the United States.[251]
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